Sledgehammer

A Buckingham Branch employee sledgehammers slag off a new track weld between 1st and 2nd Street Northeast in Charlottesville. Dictionary.com lists no synonyms, but the word sledgehammer is derived from the Anglo Saxon “Slaegan,” which, in its first sense, means “to strike violently,” according to an Anglo Saxon dictionary cited on Wikipedia, which also notes that the English words “slag,” “slog,” and “slay” are cognate; that is, they have a common origin.~Commentator Bill Emory puts up a new photo nearly every day at billemory.com/blog.